The Flames of Sorrow
by Gagegirl06
Summary: based on a true story, the tragic story of a friends life come to an end. beware...character death. rated for the death reason.


This is based on a true story. I just went on a missions trip a week or so ago and this is the true story of what happened to the family we were helping. I have changed the family from real life, to the Desoto family in the story and added a little bit of my own story to the beginning just to make it so that it is an emergency fan fic. Hope you all enjoy!

**The Flames of Sorrow**

John and Roy almost simultaneously pulled into the parking lot together. Both of them yawned, stretched, and did a good morning nod and a gesture with their hands toward one another as they headed for the door at the back of the station.

Coming into the kitchen the rest of the crew for 51 was already sitting around drinking their coffee and taking up small chat about what they did on their days off.

Chet had apparently had an evening filled with the company of a beautiful mistress. Marco had spent his day helping his mother around the house. Stoker was helping out his brother-in-law coach a little league football team. The Captain…ahh… who knew about what Captain Stanley did on his time off? John had wasted his time attempting to apprehend the attention of a female companion, and Roy had taken his family camping.

Now that all was out and discussed, the Captain called everyone into the bay room for the morning's roll call.

"John" was Stanley's first name called

"Here!" John replied quickly

"Chet" Stanley read from the list

"Here!" he replied back to the captain.

"Oh.. this is ridiculious.." Stanley said as he looked up from his paper. Then took his finger and counted from a distance the heads of each men. "5…. All present and accounted for" He used his pen to mark his paper off.

"Okay gentlemen….." The Captain began to read off their various duties and chores for the shift and then dismissed them.

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Midway through mopping up the floor in the bathroom, and midway through John and Roy talking about the camping experience… the station tones sounded off, as they always do.

"Station 51, battalion 3, truck 10, station 10, structure fire North Pickwick St. cross street Auburn Rd. , time out 15:22"

The men all dropped their chores and ran for helmets, jackets, and their assigned vehicles to go out and fight the flames.

"Station 51, KMG 365" Stanley replied into the mic and ripped off the sheet of quickly written directions and handed them to Roy, who took lead in the pursuit of their newly appointed destination.

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As their vehicles approached they could all see the thick black cloud of smoke that engulfed the warehouse in front of them. As each driver came to a hault, the men jumped out quickly and donned their tanks and masks, as well as their helmets and thick jackets.

"John.." Stanley yelled over the HT "You and Roy go see the owner over by the chiefs car, and if need be, go look for victims!"

"10-4" John responded back through the muffled sounds of his mask, and tucked the HT into the large pocket in his turnout coat.

The rest of the firefighters scurried about, taking orders, dragging lines, and pumping water out to douse the flames before them.

John and Roy made a slight jogging effort over to the chief's car.

"Do we have any victims?" Roy inquired as they reached the chief and the owner.

"No…. this place has been abandoned for years…" The owner kept speaking about the building as the captain came over the HT. John couldn't hear what he was saying, he tapped Roy on the shoulder to let him know he'd be right back, and he ran back over to where the Captain was.

"Yeah Cap?" John said panting from his run back over.

"John we've got a victim inside, looks like a female on the second floor" Stanley told his younger paramedic.

"Gotcha!" John said and began running toward the building.

He didn't bother trying to get Roy to come with him, because when he looked back he saw the chief was giving him orders to help take some of the lines with the men from station 10.

"So that's really fascinating…" The chief said talking to the owner of the warehouse. "I've always heard about people being able to make full size wax replica's of other human beings, but never knew we had one of them around here"

"Yea, this old beauty used to be a whole wax museum at one point in its life…." The owner continued with the chief as they watched the flames.

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Up on the second floor the heat was rising up under John's feet. He had to be careful where he stepped. Most of the boards were old and loose, and some being burned through.

As he approached the office on the second floor where the woman was apparently located, his left leg suddenly jolted through the path he was walking on. The wood splintered up as his leg was thrust through, and his face mask/head was smashed into the floor boards in front of him.

After a second of letting the adrenaline in him calm down, he sat himself up and was able to pull his leg back through the hole he had made. John peered down and could see clear through to the first floor where the flames were a steady consumption. He checked over his leg, it didn't feel broken at all, but his pant leg was torn open and there was some blood coming out from where he had several cuts/gouges taken out from the rough wood.

He had a slight headache that he could feel approaching, and knew he had whacked his head pretty good on the way down because his face mask was like a spider web. He was surprised it hadn't shattered.

The second floor was starting to fill up with smoke. On top of not being able to see well through his mask, the smoke only complicated matters as he pushed his way further down the hall, almost totally relying on his hands as a guide.

He reached the end room and barely through his mask was able to make out a mass of something over on the floor by the window.

It rarely looked human to him, but he dragged himself onward towards it. Dropping to his knee's, he really couldn't see what it was. He tried touching it with his gloves, but whatever this "human" was, seemed to be soft and give in. John was tired of the guessing game so he whipped his gloves off and removed his helmet.

Pulling roughly his mask off from his face, what met his eyes puzzled him. It looked like a woman alright, but when he touched the figure the wax was stripped away and burned and formed itself around John's fingertips.

As John realized what this was, he quickly got up to leave, knowing his life could be in danger as more and more smoke clouded his vision and took over the room.

He didn't bother putting his mask back on. Knowing that it would probably only delay him longer if he had to feel his way back.

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Back outside, Roy ran to each side of the building looking for his partner on one of the many lines. One of the men from truck 10 had a small explosion go off near him as he was watering down the flames, and he needed John to help him out with the bandaging and possibly transporting. Giving up on the search he had made for himself, he decided to go ask the Captain where John was.

"Hey Cap!" Roy spoke ahead of himself as he neared towards the squad and the engine.

"Yea Roy?" The Captain turned around from grabbing his helmet off the front seat.

"Do you know where John is?" He seemed to have some worry in his voice that he couldn't find his partner.

"Yea, we sent him inside probably fifteen minutes ago, we had a female victim on the second floor….. I figured he would have taken you with him…" Stanley let a puzzled look make its way onto his face.

"Cap…. There's nobody in the building!" Roy's concern grew deeper.

"What? That's impossible! Two of our men spotted a young lady in the window on the second floor… unless they're both having the same hallucination?..." Stanley looked down at Roy.

"No Cap! You don't understand… this building used to be a wax museum, they had human wax figures all inside. They removed most of them and moved them to a location in New York about 2 years ago, but the owner said there were still a couple of the ones that were still in the making back then that had gotten left on the second floor up there!" Roy turned to run toward the building.

"My God…." Was all Stanley said at first, then reached immediately down and thumbed his HT. "We need all lines turned off, especially any spraying on the second floor!" The Captain remembered back to chemistry class, that when wax is heated to a high enough degree and you add cold water, "BOOM!" you've got an explosion on your hands.

Again grabbing his HT, he yelled for Chet and Marco to follow Roy inside after Johnny.

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John fumbled down the stairs inside. Becoming extremely dizzy and nauseous, half from smoke inhalation, and half from the head injury he knew he had acquired in his previous fall upstairs.

His foot touched ground on the first floor, he had made it back down the stairs. Fumbling down the hall to get out of there, he could feel the room getting hotter, could feel his face burning red, and without being able to take another step, his weakened body made a slow collapse to the floor.

At first he was able to lean himself up against the hot floor, but his body soon slumped over and he completely passed out against the burning surface of the ground.

Roy was the first to enter in out of the group that was going after John.

Now that they had stopped spraying the hoses, the heat in the building was just beginning to intensify. Roy struggled through the sweat to breathe in his humid mask and find his partner.

All of the men noted the body only a foot or so from the steps. He had no mask on and was unconscious. With extreme worry and pure adrenaline, Roy ran with all he had over to his friend and knelt beside him.

Chet was second there and he helped Roy to pick John up from the ground. Both ran with full force out of the front door in an effort to escape the pressure of the heat closing in.

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The other men had laid out a yellow blanket beside the squad and had gotten the boxes out of the compartments for Roy.

Roy and Chet gently laid the body of their friend down. And began to asses him.

"Roy, looks like he's got some pretty bad cuts on his left leg, definitely gonna need stitches" Chet relayed to Roy

Roy looked down to where Chet was speaking about and noted it.

John had a pulse, but it was a weak one. They noted his mask had been shattered and that there was a dark purple bruise developing on his forehead. His breathing was very rough and shallow due to all of the smoke inhalation, that combined with the lump on his head was a noted reason for loss of conciousness in Roy's mind.

He grabbed the O2 mask and set it on John's face at 15 LPM, and after taking the rest of the vitals, called his patient in to rampart.

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At Rampart General Hospital, Roy stood at the nurses station in the emergency room, restocking on some of his supplies. Dixie had noted the serious look on his face and his quietness ever since he had walked in. She reached over and touched his hand as he was reaching for the last syringe laying on the top of the counter.

"He's gonna be fine Roy…" She smiled and patted the top of his hand and then met with his eyes as he looked up at her.

"I know, the doc told me he was okay. Just a few stitches and a nights stay for the smoke inhalation…… he just scares me sometimes Dix…… he's like one of my own kids… I taught him everything I know, and … and…I …." Roy couldn't find the words to say about how he felt.

"I know…" Dixie said with a warm smile "You care for him just like he was your own kid…. That and so much more"

"Yea… I guess you could say it like that." Roy smiled back at her, acknowledging that she knew how he felt inside.

"It's the same way I feel about both of you guys and Kel and Joe… we're just a big family" She squeezed the top of his shoulder as she began to walk away from the desk. "Kel said he should be coming around anytime now, if you want to go wait with him until your new partner gets here?"

"Yea.. I think I will… thanks Dix" Roy smiled and grabbed his box of supplies off of the counter and headed down to exam room 4 to wait for Johnny to wake up.

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Dr. Kelly Brackett opened up the exam room door.

"Hey Roy.. your new partner's waiting out at the squad for you, just saw him on my way in from lunch." Brackett smiled and went back out through the door.

"Thanks.." Roy replied as the door shut.

John had woken up just a moment and Roy had been going over the story of everything that had happened, knowing that John would want some heroic or death defying story to try and hook himself on a nurse.

"Wow… well… I guess you better get outta here Roy… I'll see ya in a couple of days when I'm back on." John spoke weakly through his sore throat.

"You can count on seeing me before then partner, don't think for a second that I'm not gonna come visit you on my day off."

As Roy turned and headed towards the door, John's mouth cracked open and he spoke once more…

"Hey Roy…. Thanks…for getting me outta there.. you're a pal" John smiled as he looked in his friends eyes…

"No….. I'm your best friend…. And you're mine… that's what best friends do." Roy smiled and with that last comment left.

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The rest of the shift for Roy and his temporary partner was very uneventful. They had one old man who thought he was having a heart attack but turned out to be indigestion, and they had a little boy stuck up in a tree. All in all, not much of an evening going on.

The next morning came and everyone said their goodbye's until the next shift would roll around for them.

Roy was almost into his car when Captain Stanley called him back into the station.

"Hey Roy pal… Mack Gentry for 'B' shift coming on had a delayed flight this morning and won't be able to be in for the shift today. He'll take your next one … if it's okay… can you stick around on this one?"

Roy rubbed his tired face but knew he needed to work.. who else would they get with John out of commission for the rest of the week, and it could be Craig Brice, but Roy didn't feel like sending the guys through the torture…."Sure Cap..I'll stay on" Was his only reply and he walked back into the station to change back into uniform.

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It was the next morning and Roy really was off now. He had called John the night before and apologized for not being able to come by and see him in the hospital, but had agreed to come pick him up this morning since he was being discharged, and to take him home his apartment.

As Roy's car pulled to a stop at Johns apartment building, he got out and went around the other side to hand John his crutches and help him carry his bag of clothes from the station inside.

Once inside, Roy looked down at his watch realizing it was already four o'clock. John's discharge had taken forever that morning, and then he and Roy had grabbed a bite to eat and stopped at the grocery store for John on the way back.

"You wanna a beer partner?" John asked reaching into his fridge

Roy still tired and now relaxing on Johns couch just turned and gave a nod.

John limped over to the sofa which was only a few feet from where the fridge was in the kitchen and plopped down next to Roy, tossing the cold bottle on his partners stomach.

"Thanks for picking me up and everything today man… really appreciate it." John said with gratitude in between swigs.

"Aww… it's nothing for you." Roy yawned in his reply "I do need to get home soon though, Joanne will have dinner ready before I know it, and I've gotta get a good nights rest… my son's got a football game tomorrow." Roy continued yawning

"Oh yea? Where at?" John perked up with curiosity.

"He's playing on the little league team that Mike and his brother-in-law are coaching. They're called 'The Fire' .." Roy shook his head and let a brief laugh exit his lips.

John smiled and laughed for a moment too.

"Well one things for sure… you could never tell who came up with that name." John joked sarcastically.

"Yea, tell me about it." Roy finished off his smile and just looked down at his hands running back and forth over the condensation on the bottle.

The room was a completely still with an eerie silence after the small laughter had faded. Both men just looked down as they sat there on the couch.

"Well…. I've gotta go junior." Roy stood up and put his beer on the coffee table in front of him. "I'll stop in tomorrow and check in on ya!" He smacked John on the knee and grabbed his jacket and car keys and was out the door.

"See ya!" John yelled after him as the door shut.

After sitting there on the couch for fifteen minutes of boredom already, John decided and realized he hadn't had a full shower or bath since the fire the night before. Pushing himself up, he limped into the bedroom and got undressed down to his boxers.

He sat himself on the edge of the bed and unwrapped the bandage from his leg. There was some ooze coming from his wounds, but it was all in all healing nicely and he saw no problem with sticking it in a warm bath.

He limped himself into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub to turn the water on. Just then, he heard the phone ringing in the other room. He got up as quick as he could and tried as hard as he could to make it to the living room in time to get it, but his injury had caused him to slow too quickly and he missed the call.

John went ahead, however, and grabbed the portable to take back with him in case it rang again.

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Roy walked in through the front door and was greeted by the hug of his son running around in his play clothes. He looked around for the other sweet little face of his daughter, but didn't see her. He decided she must be out back playing or something. Never mind that, he rubbed the top of his son's head making his hair fall in the pattern of a total mess and he headed up the stairs to changed his clothes and take a shower.

On his way down the upstairs hallway he saw the body of his little 4 yr. old daughter laying on her bed. Looking down at his watch he noted that it was only 5 o'clock. He stopped and put his bag on the floor to walk in and make sure she was alright.

She was tucked away in her PJ's and had a little cloth on her head. Roy reached his hand down to feel her face.

Her cheeks were warm to the touch and a little rosie.

"She has a fever.." The voice of his wife interrupted from behind. "She was playing with some of the kids next door who have been sick this past week… probably caught something from them." Joanne finished

"Yea.. probably" Roy agreed as he stood up from his sitting position on his daughters bed. "Did you take her to the doctor's?" He asked, being the concerned father and medic that he was.

"No… not yet.. I called Dr. Childe's and he said if the fever wasn't gone by tomorrow that we could bring her in to get looked at. That means.. you need to take our son to his football game in the morning.." She smiled and threw her arms up around her husband and gave him the first kiss he had, had in the past two days.

"That's fine… I was planning on picking up Johnny in the morning and going anyways" Roy smiled and gave her another kiss back and squeezed her tight.

"Well, dinner's on the table downstairs fresh out of the oven. I'll stay up here with here and you can go down and eat… and make sure that boy of yours washes the mud off his hands before he eats." Joanne added

"I will mother.." Roy said as he exited the room.

He jumped in the shower and rinsed off quickly and changed, then headed downstairs for his dinner.

After eating the lemon chicken and baked potatoes Joanne had made for dinner, he sat down and watched a movie on the t.v with his son.

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John had enjoyed the hour-or-so long bath he had taken. And had heated himself up a frozen dinner tray and was plopped down in front of the television.

In the middle of an intense gun fighting scene, he heard his phone ringing again and realized he had left it on the sink in the bathroom. Determined not to miss the call this time, he ran to his room and into the bathroom. It hurt somewhat to be using the muscles in his leg again but he didn't want to miss the call.

As luck would have it though, as soon as he came through the door, the ringing stopped, and he had missed it again. Giving the counter a small smack of disapproval, he grabbed the phone to take back to the living room with him.

With his leg in some discomfort and not paying attention to where he was walking or to the fact that he had ripped his stitches out of his leg and it was bleeding, as John walked toward the exit of the bathroom he was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a puddle of water on the slick tile floor.

Just as he turned to exit, his foot slipped on the wet surface and sent him crashing back into the side of the tub.

He took a moment to catch his breathe and take in the new un-welcomed pain he was feeling. He had hit his already recovering head on the side of the tub and on the bathroom floor, and he was most certain that he had a couple of ribs broken from the impact of the fall.

John also noted now the ripped out stitches and that his leg was bleeding all over the white tiles and mixing in with the water he had stepped in.

Reaching for the phone that he had dropped, he had to make somewhat of a stretch and had some pain in the movement, but finally got a hold of it.

He was beginning to get extremely dizzy from the hit on his head. He almost threw up trying to concentrate on the numbers to dial. But his shaking fingers managed to get the numbers through, and he unsteadily held the phone up to his ear as it rang.

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It was the last five minutes of the movie. They were about to reveal who the real killer was when the phone rang all of a sudden. Roy smacked his leg and shook his head as he flipped the power button on the controller and turned the television off. He quickly, but gently laid his sons head off of his lap and ran into the kitchen, just barely catching the last ring on the phone.

"Hello, Desoto residence" Roy said on the line.

"Ro…roy…." John breathed heavily on the other line.

"John! John… is that you buddy?" Roy could barely make out the voice but was almost positive it was his partner. "John! Are you okay?..."

"Roy… I need you…" Was all Johnny managed to get out before Roy heard the phone drop on the other end and hit the floor.

"Johnny if you can still hear me… I'm on my way with some help.. just hang in there!"

Roy quickly hung up the phone and dialed the number to the station and filled the guys in to meet him there with the squad and an ambulance. He flung a blanket over his son and kissed his forehead as he ran for the door.

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Roy hopped out of the back of the ambulance as they wheeled Johnny into the emergency room on the stretcher.

He had started coming back around to consciousness about five minutes before they had gotten there. He told Roy what had happened and Roy just laughed, half because it was funny, and the other half knowing his best friend was okay and safe.

It was about 12 PM when Roy finally left the hospital. He had called Joanne earlier and told her what was going on and that he would be home late.

His car rolled almost silently into the driveway. He walked up to the front door, and with as much ease as possible slipped the key in, unlocked it, and opened it up. He was headed for the stairs and stopped to watch his son sleeping on the couch just where he had left him several hours ago. He smiled watching him there and decided not to move or disturb him.

Roy turned and headed up the stairs to hopefully achieve the same peace and sleep. Walking towards his room at the end of the hall upstairs, he saw the door to his daughters room shut, but the light was on coming from underneath the door. He opened it up and walked in.

As soon as he did, Joanne threw her finger quietly up to her lips and motioned for Roy to be quiet. Roy walked over to her on the bed.

"How is she?" He asked putting a hand on her little forehead.

"The fever has gone down some, but she wanted me to stay in here with her tonight. I just got her to go to fall asleep." Joanne lifted her hand and placed it on her husbands face who was kneeling on the floor on the opposite side of the bed from her. "How's Johnny doing?" She asked

"Oh.. a few bumps and breaks, but as usual, he'll be just fine… recover in a week most likely." Roy smiled thinking about his accident prone partner.

"Well you look like you could recover some sleep for yourself" His wife noted, noticing the circles beginning to form under her husbands eyes. "You work too hard." She smiled and leaned as far over as she could to place a kiss to his forehead.

"Yea, I do need to be heading to bed" Roy stood and held his wife's hand across his daughter, and leaning over, gave a kiss to both of them.

"Hit the light on your way out hunny!" She added as he left.

Roy turned the light off and returned the door to its shut position. He walked down the hall to his bedroom. Stripped down to a t-shirt and boxers and fell fast asleep in his bed.

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It must have been near 4 in the morning when Roy was suddenly woken by a coughing fit. As his eyes opened and his senses came to him he felt the sudden heat in the house and noticed a slight layer of smoke creeping up the stairs and flooding the hall and his bedroom.

It took a second to spring into action, but Roy knew there was a fire. Jumping out of the bed he quickly ran to his daughters room.

"JOANNE!" He screamed into the room as he stood with the door open and startled both her and his daughter awake. She noticed the smell and the heat as well as her husband ran over to them.

"What is it Roy! What's going on?" She was scared and there was worry in her voice as their daughter started to cry.

"The house is on fire!" Roy yelled. "Stay in here with the door shut until I come back… I don't know how bad it is, but its hot in here and there's a lot of smoke. I don't know if we can get out downstairs or not, I'm going to check it out."

"What about our son? Where is my son!" She shook with worry and tears.

Roy remembered leaving him on the couch downstairs.

"I'm going to get him. He… he… he's down there.. I left him asleep down there…." Roy suddenly felt the guilt like a ton of bricks, his son was somewhere down there and he needed to get him. "Hunny… you know what to do…. I'm gonna shut the door and go …. If…if….." Roy had tears beginning to swell in his eyes as he looked down at his wife and scared little daughter. "If I don't come back up here…. go out of the window… try to wait for help, but if it gets bad… jump… and try your best to land easy." He smiled at his wife and gave her a quick kiss.

"DADDY…" his daughter was crying and she held her hands stretched out towards him.

"It's okay baby. I'm a firefighter remember…."He tried to smile and sound as confident as he could in the present situation. "I promise ….I…." the tears started to make their way down his cheek "I promise… I'll come back baby….. I love you" He picked her up into his arms and gave her the tightest hug he could allow and the biggest kiss he could give, he placed on her cheek. Then he set her down and ran for the door.

Turning around one last time, he locked that moment in his eyes, he took in the picture of both of their faces, and he let a tear slide out as he ran, shutting the door behind him.

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The Klaxons sounded off loud and disturbing through the silence at station 51.

"Station 51, truck 10, battalion 3, house on fire, 9662 North Wheel Drive, time out 5:22"

All of the men almost stopped in their tracks when they heard the address. It couldn't be right… could it?

Captain Stanley ran for the mic.

"Dispatch, repeat address again" He let go of the button in a hurry.

"Address is 9662 North Wheel Drive."

It confirmed all of the men's fears. It was Roy's house on fire.

"Lets GO!" Stanley yelled and boarded the engine.

With lights blaring and destination of a friend in need, the men raced off into the night.

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Joanne sat huddled near the open window in the bedroom clenching onto the small and fragile body of her daughter. They both began coughing as the smoke began seeping through the shirt that was stuffed under the door and coming through other cracks.

Something inside her died in that moment. She knew somehow, that Roy wouldn't be coming back for them. Whether he would survive the fire or not, she did not even want to try and comprehend at the moment. She knew it was time to jump, time to get out of there. She thought she heard the sounds of sirens off in the distance, but knew there was no time to wait.

"Come on baby." She picked up her daughter and stood at the open window of the second floor. Her daughter began to cry…

"I don't wanna jump…. I don't wanna jump…… I DON'T WANT TO….. I'm wanna wait for daddy….." she cried harder with each word.

Joanne strongly and solemnly whispered a prayer and climbed out of the window onto the small part of the roof overtop of the garage. Shakily she reached out and pulled her daughter out of the window.

As she looked around she could see the people from their street beginning to run over in robes and slippers to watch their house in flames. And just then, Joanne caught the glimpse of hope that she had needed. She saw her son wrapped up in a blanket over on the street with one of the neighbors. Roy must have found him and gotten out. But it must have been unsafe for him to come back in through the stairs is what she concluded.

The flames were licking in the upstairs now and crawling to the wall of the house right next to them out of the roof. The smoke was getting to her and her daughter and making it hard to see and to breathe. Joanne looked at the ground before her, knowing it would hurt, but she had no choice. She picked up her daughter and held her tightly to her chest in her arms. And with eyes shut….took a step of faith to the ground.

Everyone standing by watching the spectacle of events take place all took in a gasp and few were heard screaming as they watched mother and child crash to the ground. Roy's son ran over to his mother with tears in his eyes.

The squad had just pulled up and paramedics Mack Gentry and Craig Brice, who had picked up the shift and were covering for Roy and John, ran over to Mrs. Desoto.

It appeared she had fractured her right leg in several places. Other than that, she and her daughter just had some minor smoke inhalation.

Joanne desperately looked around in a furry of worry and pain. She tugged on her sons arm as the medics began their work calling into rampart and splinting the fracture.

"Where's daddy….?" She asked, not seeing him around. And when her son said nothing, she asked again, this time with more concern.. "Hunny… where is your daddy!" she began to tremble and tears began to graze down her cheeks as her son just stood there mouth open in a silent cry.

"i……i… thought he was with you…. I thought daddy was with you…."he began to let the tears out and his cries increased as did the cry of her daughter.

Captain Stanley ran over to Joanne and the children and held them both. "We'll find him" Was all Stanley said, and ran back to his men.

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At rampart everyone, including Johnny, who Dixie had woken up and brought down from his room, were standing around the radio at the nurses station. Waiting and listening intently to what would happen next. None present had a dry eye.

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Inside of the house, overcome by the smoke, Roy had given up the search for his son downstairs. Burnt on several places of his body already, and knowing he would be unconscious any minute now, with every effort he had left in him, he fell on the stairs and tried to begin to climb them….. he had let his son down… his family down… he needed to get back to his little girl….keep his promise to her.

Tears of frustration, tears of physical pain, and most of all tears of knowing this was his end slipped down his face one by one. Roy had managed to crawl up a total of eight steps….so close to the top… but not close enough.

The heat was so intense he could barely take a breathe in. As he cupped his hands around his face in an attempt to cry, he saw the picture hanging on the wall beside him…… reaching up a shaking hand, he knocked it loose so that it fell beside him on the step.

The tears beat down on his face like a relentless summers rain as he turned over on the steps just enough so that he was able to see the faces in the picture. It was a family photo they had taken a year ago, and of course… Johnny had made himself an appearance in it. Roy laughed a little and sniffed in from the crying. He kissed his wife, and his kids.

He was getting dizzier by the second….the faces on the picture were fading out to nothing, to black, and with the last breathe he could managed he touched the glass over those precious faces and whispered "…i..love…you…..take care of her junior".

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There was an explosion inside from the gas stove in the kitchen that everyone heard. The firemen had just gotten their lines ready and ran toward the front door to kick it in. As always Captain Stanley was yelling their orders to them.

Chet kicked in the front door and was greeted by an overwhelming lash of flames coming out at him. The men had to stand back on the porch some in order to douse the entrance flames so they could even get inside. Each of them stood with heavy hearts, knowing that nobody in there could still be alive. Even while holding the hose, each man began to slowly cry….trying hard to hold onto the hose, to enter into the house, to conquer these flames and save a friend. They all knew the reality….. he was gone.

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At rampart each heart was torn as they listened to the dialogue conveyed back and forth over the radio.

"Cap.." Chet signaled over the HT "We can't……" The ears of those heavy hearts at rampart could tell that the firefighter speaking was in tears. "We can't go in sir…… its over……… we lost…" Chet let go of the button his thumb was holding in.

Captain Stanley, a man of pride and dignity, broke down. He thumbed his HT, but for a moment, all anyone heard was the complete silence in the static.

"………..I know………….stay….station 51…..10-4"

Johnny slammed his fists against the counter at the nurses station. His face looked as if he had been in flames himself. And he was, only his flames were ones of sorrow. The tears wrenched his face. Dix tried to comfort and hold him as she cried herself, but John Gage broke down right there in her arms….he broke down hard. "NO!….." was all he managed to scream…. And other than the sobs being heard throughout the rampart staff.. it was complete silence.

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**4 days later at the funeral **

The Captain had finished his speech at the funeral and ended the commencement and everyone was walking by, shaking hands or giving hugs to Joanne and the kids as Johnny stood there beside her with his arm strong and steady on her shoulder.

When the crowd was all gone and everything was clear, Joanne and the kids were waiting quietly at the car, John walked over to the casket. It had a picture of Roy in his uniform sitting on top. John silently wept for the loss of his best friend….his best friend… he whispered to himself in his head, but he knew he had to be strong as he looked up at Joanne and the kids.

"Don't worry partner….he said as he touched the smooth wood surface…. I'll take care of em'…….that's what best friends are for"

John wiped the tears off on his shirt sleeve and turned and walked to the car. Leaving Roy and the casket behind him, and Joanne and the kids before him.

"This is my new life."

THE

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D! - Hope you guys enjoyed. I know Roy died… sad… but this was a true story that I wanted to share! Thanks for reading guys and God bless!


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